I've always found black and white photos to be classic and timeless, artistic and soulful. Whether you are looking for a way to preserve your heritage family photos, or a fun way to highlight a modern shot of your baby - scrapbooking black and white photos can yield some fantastic results.
We've received some amazing examples from our readers and design team showing various ways to use black and white photos effectively on your pages. Below you will find just a few ways to showcase those little colorless gems.
Heritage Photos
The first thing that comes to mind when most people think of black and white photos is heritage or vintage photos. If you're anything like me, those special family heirlooms still haven't made it into scrapbooks because you've been stumped on how to give them special treatment, while still preserving their vintage feel. The following pages by Sandi Clarkson and Anne Kenworthy are great examples of how to do just that.
Sandi keeps a soft nostalgic feel to her page with lacy trims and romantic florals, while Anne's vintage color palette and patterns give her layout a fun 1950's flavor.
Bridging the Generations
Amy Smith shows us how black and white can be used to contrast and compare photos from different era's without the distraction of different color processing. Looks amazingly like photos of the same little girl doesn't it? It's actually Amy and her mother in similar outfits!
A Vintage Twist
Black and white doesn't need to be reserved solely for vintage photos though. The following layout by Anna Koziarek shows how Victorian inspired embellishments, paired with a brighter color palette and a modernly cropped black and white photo, can make for a stunning page.
For a switch, modern photos can also be made to look vintage with some simple photo processing tricks and the right products. Jess Carleton's page looks like a heritage page at first glance due to the oval shapes and digital brushes used to age her sweet pictures.
Making it Modern
A great photo with modern cropping can be fabulous turned black and white when it's paired with even the most modern trends and graphics. Take these pages by Pia Astrand, Mieko Sejima, and Jamie Cripps for example:
Go Monochromatic
Another effective way to showcase a photo done in grayscale, is to go monochromatic with the rest of your page. Check out the effective way each of the following layouts uses a single color family to draw attention to the photos.
The fun advantage to using black and white photos in lieu of color, is how effortlessly they combine with any theme or color you choose to pair with them. By removing the color from the photos, you can be free to use as much or as little color as you want in your surrounding page.
Whether you are trying to keep with the style and feel of the era of your heritage photos, playing with vintage products and modern photos, or just trying to showcase your favorite shots while having fun with products and color, try going black and white: you just might find it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in your scrapbook pages.
Do you have any great pages featuring photo montages or collages? Freestyle, or using templates-we're looking for creative pages covered with your fave photos. Send submissions to practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com by October 18th. Please try to keep file sizes under 200k.
4 comments:
I learned quite a bit from these examples. Thank you for providing the extra detail information. I think I shall try for some more black/white photos on my next project.
Beautiful examples and such a wide range of ideas. Something for every photo and taste. Thanks for the detailed write-ups too.
gorgeous examples all..love all the details about each
These are great examples with loads of idea. Loving your new format!
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